Deploy and reconfigure Instance from Clone

This tutorial details how to deploy a virtual machine from either a running or a powered off virtual machine in the ITS Private Cloud and reconfigure the operating system (hostname, domain, gateway, dns, etc.) using the VSS CLI. It assumes you already have set up a VSS account with access to the REST API, a virtual machine with operating system and VMware Tools installed which will be the source virtual machine.

If you do not have a virtual machine with operating system installed, please refer to Deploying a Development Environment.

Source Virtual Machine

A source virtual machine can be either a powered on or off virtual machine. However, the power state is relevant in terms of deployment time. This is because when cloning a running virtual machine, first it creates a snapshot and then starts copying the data. Even though the memory data is not kept, it takes time to generate the snapshot. For this example, we will be using a powered on virtual machine with Ubuntu installed.

Optional* First obtain the vm identifier moref (managed object reference) of the source virtual machine:

This version of the VSS CLI supports managing virtual machines not only using the UUID and Moref but using names. In case of multiple results, the CLI prompts to select the right instance.

vss-cli compute vm ls -f name=Front

moref    name              folder.path                  cpu_count    memory_gb  power_state    ip_address
-------  ----------------  -------------------------  -----------  -----------  -------------  ------------
vm-2182  2004T-Frontend-1  VSS > Development > Dev03            1            1  poweredOff

Save the moref in MOREF environment variable.

Launch Instance

Launching an instance from-clone is simpler than shell since the from-clone command carbon copies source virtual machine specifications and creates an instance with just name and --description/-d, however to make this example more realistic, we will specify a different logical folder, otherwise the from-clone command will use the source virtual machine folder, network, disks and domain.

Run vss-cli compute vm mk from-clone --help to obtain the list of arguments and options required:

Usage: vss-cli compute vm mk from-clone [OPTIONS] [NAME]

  Clone virtual machine from running or powered off vm.

  If name argument is not specified, -clone suffix will be added to
  resulting virtual machine.

Options:
  -s, --source TEXT               Source virtual machine or template MOREF or
                                  UUID.  [required]
  -d, --description TEXT          A brief description.  [required]
  -b, --client TEXT               Client department.
  -a, --admin TEXT                Admin name, phone number and email separated
                                  by `:` i.e. "John
                                  Doe:416-123-1234:john.doe@utoronto.ca"
  -r, --inform TEXT               Informational contact emails in comma
                                  separated
  -u, --usage [Test|Prod|Dev|QA]  Vm usage.
  -o, --os TEXT                   Guest operating system id.
  -m, --memory INTEGER            Memory in GB.
  -c, --cpu INTEGER               Cpu count.
  --cores-per-socket INTEGER      Cores per socket.
  -f, --folder TEXT               Logical folder moref name or path.
  --scsi TEXT                     SCSI Controller Spec <type>=<sharing>.
  -i, --disk TEXT                 Disk spec
                                  <capacity>=<backing_mode>=<backing_sharing>.
                                  optional: backing_mode, backing_sharing
  -n, --net TEXT                  Network adapter <moref-or-name>=<nic-type>.
  -t, --domain TEXT               Target fault domain name or moref.
  --notes TEXT                    Custom notes.
  -p, --custom-spec TEXT          Guest OS custom specification in JSON
                                  format.
  -e, --extra-config TEXT         Extra configuration key=value format.
  --power-on                      Power on after successful deployment.
  --template                      Mark the VM as template after deployment.
  --vss-service TEXT              VSS Service related to VM
  --instances INTEGER             Number of instances to deploy  [default: 1]
  -w, --firmware TEXT             Firmware type.
  --tpm                           Add Trusted Platform Module device.
  --storage-type TEXT             Storage type.
  --snapshot TEXT                 Snapshot to clone.
  --retire-type [timedelta|datetime]
                                  Retirement request type.
  --retire-warning INTEGER        Days before retirement date to notify
  --retire-value TEXT             Value for given retirement type. i.e.
                                  <hours>,<days>,<months>
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

Network

Run vss-cli compute net ls to list available network segments to your account. You must have at least VL-1584-VSS-PUBLIC which is our public network.

This version of the VSS CLI supports managing networks not only using the moref, but also using names. In case of multiple results, the CLI prompts to select the right instance.

vss-cli compute net ls -f name=PUBLIC

moref              name                description         subnet            ports
-----------------  ------------------  ------------------  --------------  -------
dvportgroup-11052  VL-1584-VSS-PUBLIC  VSS Public network  142.1.216.0/23       32

Save dvportgroup-11052 in NET environment variable:

By default, the network adapter will use vmxnet3 which provides ideal performance, however a few legacy operating systems does not have the drivers. In such case, you can specify which adapter type between: e1000e*, e1000, vmxnet2 or vmxnet3. To do so, append the adapter type to the network adapter network as follows:

Folder

Logical folders can be listed by running vss-cli compute folder ls. Select the target moref folder to store the virtual machine on:

Set the FOLDER environment variable to the target folder (the folder moref may vary):

Before proceeding to deploy the virtual machine, a guest operating system customization specification needs to be created.

Customization Spec

Customizing a guest operating system is helpful to prevent conflicts if virtual machines are identical after deployed. To customize the guest operating system, VMware Tools and Perl must be installed in the source virtual machine.

The vss-cli compute vm mk from-clone command provides the option -p/--custom-spec to pass the guest os customization spec, which is structured as follows:

Since we are running on a DHCP-enabled network, we will just update the hostname and domain. The customization spec added will be:

Serializing the above JSON structure would be something like:

Deployment

At this point, we have all requirements to run vss-cli compute vm mk from-clone command to submit a deployment request. For this example, the request is made for 2GB of memory, 2 vCPU, 2x40GB disks and to reconfigure the hostname and domain.

Wait a few minutes until the virtual machine is deployed.

Access Virtual Machine

Since we added the --power-on option, the virtual machine should have been powered on right after the Guest Operating System Customization task completed.

In a few minutes the virtual machine will show the hostname and ip configuration by running vss-cli compute vm get <name-or-vm-id> guest:

The Guest Host Name shows that the hostname has been changed, and now you will be able to access via either ssh or the virtual machine console: